AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Give me a little cover, love,” I told him and he nodded, not removing his body from where he was shielding me from projectiles. I peeked out above his shoulder to see the room and I brought Mayahuel forward.
Let’s get them a little more docile, she said, licking her chops and releasing our combined powers. The mass compulsion grabbed everyone but Lalo, who was immune thanks to the mate bond and Beloved connection. Lalo helped me up, and I started releasing our people, apologizing when I did. I hated compelling our pack members. It felt like a violation of their person, but I also wanted to keep them safe, so picking and choosing who to compel was out of the question.
“Alright guys, you know the drill. These people have hurt our packs and took our people. Let’s make sure they feel it,” Lalo growled out. Our group was the smallest one, so it took us a few minutes to get through the supernatural ones and start going through the rooms.
We rounded the corner of the last hall of the floor when we saw Cory and Evie slumped across an open door. Cory looked a little worse for wear, and Evie had handprints wrapping around her neck but otherwise looked alright. We chatted and started walking back toward the stairs, the knot in my stomach beginning to loosen until I doubled over, my hands to my ears as I heard a heartbreaking scream pushing through the mind-link. I would recognize my son’s voice anywhere, and I felt my heart fracturing at the pain I could hear in his voice. I was afraid of what it meant.
“Adrien,” I whimpered.
“They’re on the third floor, let’s hurry,” Lalo ordered.
“That’s where Traci said Tori was,” Evie’s whisper made my heart hammer against my chest.
“No. No, not Tori. Not her,” I whispered, tears falling from my eyes and I took off to find my family.
Lalo caught up behind me as I broke the door down that opened to the third floor, forgetting all about the badge I’d placed in my pocket. Unlike the fourth floor, where everyone had been neatly dispatched, the mess on the third floor was everywhere. Pieces of flesh scattered across the floor, blood splashed on the walls. I almost slipped on the way to where the familial pull was driving me. Our warriors were gathered around the entrance of a room, looking somber and pained. A few, ones I knew were friends with Tori or watched her grow up, had tears in their eyes.
I entered the room and dropped to my feet before Adrien and Elias, who were sobbing over her body. I vaguely noticed Helios off to the side, tears in his eyes, but giving them space.
I looked down at my sweet little Tori, remembering the day Adrien brought her home. She was only a few months old, having been given up by her mother, who had fallen pregnant before finding her mate. I remembered her first steps, and the way her tiny butt fell on the rug when she tried to run after she figured out she could walk without the hands holding her steady.
Rage filled me as I remembered her graduation and how proud everyone was when she decided to study architecture. I stood up and turned to Lalo.
“Stay with them.”
“Kassie...”
“Stay with our son, Lalo,” I ordered feeling Mayahuel pushing forward with me. We needed to vent and we were in the right place to do so. Lalo walked up to me and gave me a hard kiss, nodding his head sharply and a plea in his eyes as his hand skimmed my stomach. I nodded, then walked down to the fourth floor, ready to find someone to kill.
The scene before me made me... happy, waning my thirst for justice only a little. Dead men littered the halls, most of them singed and burnt to a crisp. Celeste was coming toward me, the look on her face and black eyes telling me all I needed to know. She needed to take out her rage on someone too.
“Is she...” I faltered, afraid to finish the question. I didn’t know if I could take another loss.
“Alive,” she said, a tear falling down her face but not changing the determination in her eyes. “I need to find my son.”
“We found them. They’re on the floor above, with Adrien and...” I choked and her eyes softened for a moment.
“Tori...” I shook my head at her implied question and another tear fell down her face.
“The fifth floor is clear. Let’s go down to the first floor,” she said, the hard look back on her face. I didn’t question why Markus wasn’t with her. There was nothing like a mother’s rage and our mates were smart enough to know that. Their job was to take care of our children right now.
I nodded and followed her down the stairs. The first floor was more expansive than the other floors. There were three hallways going in each direction, but the halls on the edges branched off into more halls. I looked over at Celeste when we heard fighting to the left, but silence on the right.
“No one leaves alive,” she said, her hands glowing and fire beginning to drip down to the floor as we took off to the right.
“I’ll hold them, you get it done,” I said. We cleared the hall, opening the doors and killing every fucker taking advantage of the women and men who were in chains. I reached out to Nat, letting her know she needed to come down with some people to figure out who the victims were. She told me the fifth floor had been cleared and she was dealing with some injuries, but she’d send everyone down to come help.
Celeste and I continued to vent our rage on every asshole in the building. I stopped compelling once I realized the guards were nowhere near this side of the halls, and most of these assholes were cowards unwilling to come out to fight two women. Ripping out throats and dicks was a lot more satisfying than bringing them down to their feet without any pain.
We turned the corner into another hall and stopped. Sebastian was standing still in front of a man who was holding Theo hostage. His back was to us, but I would bet that was Nickolas, one of the causes of all this heartache.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Theo
I knew the first floor was where I would find my brother, but I didn’t expect it to be this huge. The images that Zi’s contact provided made it clear that the warehouse was bigger than its outward appearance, but the man must have been standing too close to see how wide this floor really was.
Seb split the team into two groups, giving Miguel the reigns of the second one with instructions not to engage if they found Nickolas first. We went through one of the side corridors that branched off the right and went door to door. We killed anyone we found abusing or torturing people, and promised the victims someone would be coming back to free them. The last thing we needed was hysterical people getting in the way.
